Introduction
Welcome to the picturesque town of Sweet Valley. It sits right on the California coast and the weather is always perfect. Teen hangouts include a mall, a beach, and a diner called the Dairi Burger. There are exactly two obscenely wealthy families, the old money Patmans and the new money Fowlers, and they live up on the hill. There’s a bad part of town across the railroad tracks but we don’t talk about it much. And in between are all the happy upper middle class families living in the most perfect town in the world.
One of those happy families is the Wakefields. Dad Ned is an attorney, mom Alice is an interior designer, big brother Steven goes to Sweet Valley University, and then there are the most perfect and beautiful sixteen-year-old twins in the whole wide world. They are blond haired and blue-eyed and have perfect figures. Elizabeth, four minutes older, is mature and responsible. She writes for The Oracle, the school paper. Jessica is the crazy one, captain of the cheerleading squad and flirt extraordinaire. They are the best of friends, except for when they get in a fight in almost every single book.
High school life in Sweet Valley is as All American as it gets. All the sports teams, all the cheerleading, all the extracurriculars. There’s a sorority called Pi Beta Alpha and a fraternity called Phi Epsilon. You’ve got nerds, jocks, geeks, and burnouts, and for the most part they all tolerate each other. There is diversity in the form of two black students, two Mexicans, and a Chinese girl.
There is no timeline continuity in Sweet Valley. During the twins’ junior year, we will experience several Christmases and summer breaks. Don’t think about it too much.
With all that out of the way, let’s dive in!
